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Laptop technology - the good and the bad - what to avoid?

M

Migroo

Diamond Member
Hi there guys.

I'm looking at buying my first laptop. I havent been on the forums for a while and I havent been keeping up with technology.

With that in mind, I have a few questions, however I'm not looking at specific products yet.

CPUs: What are the P4 and P3M like? Is either of them a definate no-no? Are there any AMD notebook CPU offerings? Also where does Centrino come into all of this? Is that just a name for a P4?

Video: I see that some laptops have decent-ish video cards (with acceleration) nowadays (eg the ATi 7500).. I wouldnt mind something like this, however, is the 7500 the 'lowest' spec? Are there any higher specs of video systems in laptops available?

Many thanks
 
P3 is slower than P4, but both are power hungry, esp. compared tot the P-M, which is part of the centrino. Centrino is a hardware bundle of the Intel PM, 855 chipset and the 2100 pro wireless B card. Many people here dislike the wireless, and have cited its shortcomings. I prefer the a/b/g cards, just for flexibility. You usually can switch the wireless cards if needed. Neither the 3, 4, or M are a no- no. It depends on what you are using it for, and your budget. There are AMD offerings, but I don't know too much about them.
Video: I have a Radeon 9000 in my lappie. THere are higher and faster than mine! Again, it depends on how much you want to spend and how much gaming and other graphics intense stuff you plan to do. Hope that helps.
 
Thanks saintnick! Thats very useful 🙂

With regard to video cards, should I take it that a mobile Radeon xyz is similar in speed/spec/peformance to the desktop Radeon of same model name?
 
Not sure on how comparable the mobile cards are to desktop- I would think that the notebook ones are scaled back in voltage and power to make them draw less power and create less heat for the notebook. Desktops have more space for cooling and more disposable wattage.
 
General no-nos are Celeron processors and shared/integrated graphics chips (if you're a gamer or planning to do any graphics intensive work, like CAD or 3D animation). Another thing to be careful about is the type of screen you're getting. Generally, you would avoid the lower resolution XGA or XGA+ in favor of SXGA+, UXGA or their widescreen versions and look for the widest viewing angle, highest contrast ratio and best response rates. It's sometimes tough to get the best screen since some manufacturers use different spec screens in the same exact model (Dell).

At the current top end processor-wise, you can get a P4 3.2GHz, Athlon 64 3200 and 3400 or the Pentium M 1.7GHz. The Pentium M/Centrino strikes the best balance between battery life and performance. The 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 is the best of the currently shipping graphics chips.

The lowest end laptop these days will have more than enough power for general office/school/internet activities.You can get almost any feature in today's laptops that you can get in a current mid-high level desktop (including RAID, DVD writer, TV tuner/PVR, etc.).

Before you start researching and asking for advice, you should decide what you are going to use the laptop for and the priority of each feature:

price
weight/size/portability
battery life
raw CPU performance
3D performance/gaming
upgradeability

Then you should decide which secondary features are must-haves, such as built-in optical drive, DVD writer, Wi-Fi, IEEE1394/firewire, etc.

Here's an idea of the range of what's out there, in no particular order.

Fujitsu P5000D - Full featured mahcine in a very compact package, but not for gaming, since it has integrated graphics. (Older games are playable.)

IBM Thinkpad T41p One of the best combinations of portability and power with solid build quality. (Also look at the R series for a bigger machine with more options and the X series for portability)

HP Compaq x1000 Good mid-range machine with an older but decent graphics chip (Radeon 9000/"9200").

Dell Inspiron 8600 Dell's high-end Pentium M/ATI Radeon 9600 machine. Heavier than other Pentium Ms.

Sager 8890, 5680, 4780 Heavy, low battery life, high performance P4 processors at a reasonable price.

Voodoo PC notebooks High performance, high price. A range of machines (P4, Athlon and Pentium M).

Gateway m505x Pentium M with ATI Radeon 9600.

Gateway m675x Heavy P4 with ATI Radeon 9600.
 
Let me add that the Centrino (PM) chips have an extra 512kb cache compared to the P4. In many tests the 1.4 perfomes up to the level of a 2.4 P4 ... Not that I have tested this stuff personally but just read tht kind of stuff. Also the PM has throttleing so rase or drop its mhz depending on what you are doing (multimedia vs. typing a report). I would get the PM if you can afford it. If not See what the Mobile Athlon has to offer, but I hardly hear anything about it... word is that AMD screwed over OEMs last year or something, so there isn't many makers producing AMD portables.
 
HP Compaq x1000 Good mid-range machine with an older but decent graphics chip (Radeon 9000/"9200").
Click to expand...

"9200" heh 😕 😀

HP retails a model of the Compaq x1000 called the HP ZT3000 which is supposed to be as good, with less quality issues. They are pretty much the same machine, but the hp is a later iteration with minor issues ironed out.
 
Centrino is actually based on the P3 architecture, but it is vastly improved to the point where it seems that the P3 had nothign to do with it (well, not really, just pointing out that it is NOT a P3 even though it was built from the P3). Very good processer that gives you around 7 hours of battery life. P4-m or P4 is good if the laptop will stay plugged in most of the time.
 
Originally posted by: preslove
HP Compaq x1000 Good mid-range machine with an older but decent graphics chip (Radeon 9000/"9200").
Click to expand...

"9200" heh 😕 😀

HP retails a model of the Compaq x1000 called the HP ZT3000 which is supposed to be as good, with less quality issues. They are pretty much the same machine, but the hp is a later iteration with minor issues ironed out.
Click to expand...

thats funny. ive got the "9200" right here in my x1000 =p.
 
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